Who Moved My Cheese ?? a review

Hello World !!

These days i find enough time to read books ( which i enjoy the most) and to blog( another recent passion of mine). so this post is the result of the interaction of the above two phenomena and here i am writing a review on this book"Who Moved My Cheese??".

A pretty small book ( probably the size of a 1st class book) but with plenty of info which would make us think for a life time, probably this is the most apt comment that can be given for this book. As a quote on its cover page says " It takes just under an hour to read this but has a lifetime worth moral in the content".

Enough of introduction now let us see what the story is about. The concept is simple "Change Mangement". A couple of years ago i read in one of my courses(POM - principles of management) about Porter's analysis of the change in an organization, the few examples presented in this book follow the same principles. So all i can say is it has both a technical as well as a bit of motivational touch to it.

Coming to the story it is about four characters (as the picture shows), two of them are mice SNIFF and SCURRY and two of them are little people HEM and HAW. These names are not just to appear funky but they depict the nature of each of those characters. While sniff can sniff a change(oppurtunity) Scurry on being told wat to do acts on accordingly and immediately, Hem as the name suggests always expresses dissent @ change and Haw though initially reluctant to change with the situation, learns in course of time the need to change and the benifits that one can get.

The story is simple, All four of them live on cheese and they search for it in a maze. One day they find a very good store of cheese in a corner of the big maze. In due course of time the cheese gets over, Sniff and scurry who are ready for the change sense it immediately and after a lot of hard work find another store with lots of cheese. Hem who is always reluctant to change keeps on wondering " Who moved my cheese ?? "and Here comes the character i loved the most-- Haw. Though reluctant to change initially Haw decides to search for new cheese as the situation worsens. He is a higly motivated person and derives his motivation from whatever small success he achieves on the way. This is shown by the incident where he keeps on searching the maze just because he is able to find small crumbles of cheese here and there. Finally he reaches the same store where sniff and scurry are enjoying the cheese. He remebers all the lessons that he had learnt on his adventure and tries to apply them to his future.

In a way or two all these characters represent our thought process in life. There are a gifted few who can sniff change. There are others who get this golden oppurtunity to be guided by those gifted few and take full advantage of that, like Scurry. But for me most of us are like Haw who might not expect change but are willing to give it a try hoping for the best. It is these kind of people who can survive in a world Where change is the only constant thing. But people like Hem who never want to change have only one option left..........

I would like to put here a couple of quotes presented in the book through Haw's character.
"Smell the cheese often so that u know when it is getting old"
&
"It is safer to search in maze than to remain in a cheeseless situation"

I dont say all of u turn out to be sniffs overnite on reading this bk, but there is a gud chance that u start trying to be one. So to know which character of the four lies in u start reading " Who Moved My Cheese??"

Complexity

The complexity of the complexity is complex to understand, but if the simplicity behind the complexity is understood then complexity is no more complex, So instead Of trying to understand complex things n making life complicated, it is better to understand the simplicity behind that complexity of those complex things hence making the seemingly complex complex things simple.

** for most of u : This is my Own Quote and not copied from some source.

A session with the instructor

hi guys !!

As most of u agree Sessions with ur instructor @ college r sometimes ( probably most of the times ) the worst things ever to undergo, A recently concluded session like this reInforced my belief.

One of the worst things is submitting reports. We as part of our final sem course are required to submit a report ( i dont understand the requirement of one page report, I always felt a reoprt shuld be as big as BHAGAVADGITA) . We scratched our heads for around two days and finally put in some words on that white sheet and submitted it to him, only to see him tearing the papers @ will just for a simple reason that we wrote them in ink instead of taking a prinout. This was a fortnight ago.

But today was simply horrible. We have a GD as an Evaluation component and it was like all ur worst nightmares coming true when he asked us to discuss about the " Jet taking over Air Sahara" or "Mittal taking over someX somewhere in Europe" . I knew nthing on both the topics n it was all lost even b4 it started. The later was finally selected (i myself voted 4 that only to regret later).

I never knew that the comapny was a European one. Soon, I started speaking like it was in India but escaped safely coz i never mentioned that it was in India. A Few seconds have passed and suddenly my friend, sitting next to me took over and started saying it would bring in a lot of revenue for the country n all. Another of my frenz who had a fair knowledge of that topic elobarated to us that it was actually a European company n not an indian one. Everyone started laughing( including our instructor) @ the persong sitting next to me :-) . The discussion went on for 5 more minutes n our embarassement increased with time, We knew nthin n spoke nthin....@ last to my delight my instructor concluded the GD with some of his viewpoints( he took 15 mins while all of us together took 5) ...........It was a session i would never 4get in my life.

Strengths And Defects : How to turn the later into the former ??

Hi all !!

Here I go with the third of my posts. Well this is also inspired by a story somone told me years ago. As u can see in the title it is about the strengths and defects which play a huge role in the daily life. We often hear alot about losing games and etc.. because of certain defects. So Is it always true that ppl loose beacuse of their defects ?? no atleast for me it is not, they loose because of their inability to use their defects to their advantage.

To emphasize my point i put in that story which was told by a close friend of mine six years ago. Here it goes :

Long Long ago in china(dont know why many stories are of chinese origin) there lived a women who used to earn her living by collecting firewood from a near by forest and selling it in the market. This woman had two pots one of which had a hole @ its center while the other one was perfect. Daily the woman used to fetch water using these two pots from a lake situated deep in the forest. The place was far and the woman had to walk a mile or two (approx) daily. Beacuse of the defect in one of the pots she used to have only 1 and half pots of water everyday. Seeing this the pot which was perfect teased the other of being useless. The defective pot, that night asked the woman the reason for which she was still using him. In reply the woman asked the pot to carefully observe the path on both sides the next day.

The next day evening the woman asked the pot if he had noticed any difference among the two sides. The defective pot replied by saying that there were alot of flowers on his side of the path. The woman simply laughed and said it is because of the hole which the pot had that she was able to grow those flowers which she was selling in the market to earn some extra money.

So frenz this might just be a small story ( largely ineffective for most) but as i said there is nothing defective or effective, It depends upon how we perceive it. Many might look @ this as any other story but some might look @ this as a small source of knowledge. Perception, it is that which makes the difference between a STRENGTH and a DEFECT.

**feel free to post in ur opinions

Do you know why only female mosquitoes bite us ??

It is a well known fact that only the female mosquitoes suck blood from the humans. but do you know why ?? ok here goes a story

There was a small farmer in a remote village in china. This farmer was Happy with whatever he had but the same was not true with his wife who was always geedy. She wanted to be the richest in china and used to pester her husband always.

Legend had it that the "Mystic Mountain" in southern china is a residence of gods with supernatural powers. This legend travelled far and finally reached the farmer's wife who was becoming more and more troublesome as the days passed by. The farmer inspite of all this trouble loved his wife and tried to explain to her that too much of money is not advisable.

Days passed by as the seasons changed and the winter came. Unable to withstand the deadly winter the farmer's wife passed away still thiking about the riches on her deathbed. The farmer who loved his wife dearly decided to take her to the Mystic Mountian to get her back to life. Having decided so he made the long and tedious journey to the mountain. At the foot of the mountaing he met an old man whose beard was as white as the snow. The farmer after narrating everything to the old man pleaded him to bring his wife back to life. The old man agreed to do so but warned the farmer that it might not be wise to go aginst the laws of nature. The farmer however, was reluctant to miss this oppurtunity. Seeing his determination the old man asked the farmer to put three drops of his blood on his wife's lips. The farmer quickly did as he was ordered and to his astonishment his wife came back to life. Both thanked the old man and left the mountain.

On their way home the farmer asked his wife to wait by the river side and he went to fetch some food for both of them. While he was gone a rich merchant who anchored his boats on the river shore came over to the lady and offered to marry her. This lady who always wanted to be rich went with that merchant ignoring her husband. The farmer returned back only to learn about his wife's disloyalty. He decided to take revenge and went to the merchant's palace. He found his wife sitting in a golden throan with a lot of servants around her. Seeing her former husband the lady said " I would not come with u as this is the life i had always yearned for !! ". The farmer in reply said " I no more have the desire to accept u as a wife. I came to take back the three drops of my blod." . The lady sensing an oppurtunity to get rid of him immediately cut her finger and gave him back the three drops of blood. As soon as she did this she started to shrink and turned into a mosquitoe. She started to bite her Ex-Husband to take those drops of blood. The farmer who was clever enough to sense this ran to the "Mystic Mountain" and became the old man's disciple. The mosquitoe( who cant enter the mountain now) meanwhile was able to suck only two drops of blood and still is searching for her husband to get the third.

So frenz this is the reason why only female mosquitoes bite humanbeings.

Sunset, one of the best pictures anyone can take and desert, one of the best places to see Sunset and Sunrise. A combination of these two came across my Cam when we went to JaiSalmer last year. Here I post it for u all.